A video of a talk by Alex Vitale
11 a.m., November 27, 2022
Join the Humanist Forum in person OR on Zoom.
At this Sunday’s Humanist Forum, we will watch and discuss a video of a talk by Alex Vitale.
Due to several high-profile accounts of abuse, police are seen as both oppressors and protectors. The problem, says Prof. Vitale, is that police are trained in highly militarized ways. He says that diversifying the police force or requiring them to wear body cameras will not change the underlying systemic racism in police procedures. He discusses the history and nature of this racism, what defund the police really means, and why the call to defund the police is reasonable.
Alex Vitale is an American author and professor of sociology at Brooklyn College. He is also the coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, The Appeal, USA Today, Vice News, and other media outlets. Vitale is the author of The End of Policing (2017), which argues for the abolition of police.
The video is produced by Skeptics in the Pub, an international discussion form. You can preview this talk at https://youtu.be/q_ysKdFbDhA
On the following Sunday, December 4, Vic Schachter will speak to us, in person.
You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).
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